What do you need to be prepared on social media? #Hardware and #Documents

A phone

Most of us get caught up on this. We think we need the latest and greatest phone in order to make it on social media. That’s not true. I’ve done miraculous things with that old Nokia brick phone. I do suggest you have at least an Apple5 or Samsung5 to make it. If you haven’t connected to the cloud for storage do so. Try to save as little as possible on your phone in order to keep the operating system running smoothly.

OtherHardware:

A nice size bag that can fit your laptop, tablet and tripod. I bought a tripod that’s works magnificently and fit my budget. CLICK HERE. If you shoot with your phone, you want to get a cell phone holder for the charger. CLICK HERE. And if you shoot with your tablet, CLICK HERE to get a charger.

Documents

Speaking of the cloud, in the 21st Century every social media prepared author and writer needs to have an account in the cloud. Whether it’s iTunes or Google Cloud, having a way to store files, photos, videos and audio clips is very important. Since you do a lot of social media from your phone, being able to store files, retrieve repeated texts and post regular pictures you want to add to your social media all the time is very handy and time saving.

Software:

100 word bio – There’ve been many times I’m in a group or on Facebook and I see someone needing to feature an author today. Someone canceled, they forgot to schedule and the world is coming to an end, BUT if you can send your bio and picture with social media links you could be featured for free in the next hour. Bam! In my 100 word bio, I have ONLY A HUNDRED WORDS THAT WORKS GREAT! I also have all my social media links and related links as well. One file is awesome.

Pictures – On my phone I have a SD card that saves up to 64Gigs of space. The phone itself saves up to 36Gigs, so I’m very good on space, but I do have a file on my SD card named promopics. I add pictures of myself, video thumbnails, book covers and even backgrounds I can work with when I’m doing quotes or making video on my phone.

Book files – If you only have one to three books, you can actually add this information to your 100 word bio file. Since I have over 37 books, I needed a book file. I created this file on my computer and then uploaded it to Google docs. In the file contains all my books in order, a quick subtitle and a link to where the book is sold on my website and where the book is sold on Amazon (I try to use my affiliate links in the file to shorten the URL.)

Promo File – This file is used to copy short status messages I can schedule on a monthly basis to my social media schedule software. I go through monthly and clean out expired posts, while adding more. I usually range abut thirty to fifty status messages that can fit in all the accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram.) This files saves me so much time when I’m just sitting around waiting for a child.

Hashtag document – This is so no matter what you post, you should have at leave 10 blocks of hashtags with that post.

Two words I can say that makes me absolutely adore these files – Time Saving. I implore you to please make these files up these weekends and have them on you.

Happy 21st Century marketing!

To see more 21st Century marketing, check out two videos that will help you.

I’m always available to answer questions for you because it may be the questions millions of other authors are trying to get answer and the answer we come up with could help not only you, but others as well.

I recently ran a free book promotion weekend for one of my books. I experimented with placing a Facebook ad that reached out to multiple countries, not just the U.S. My dilemma with doing this is that I didn’t have a way to post all of the links for the various Amazon sites in other countries on my ad without it looking clumsy.

I searched for a way to create a universal link for my book. A universal link, when clicked by a potential reader, is designed to take them to my book on the appropriate Amazon page for their country.

I couldn’t believe how easy it was to do this at absolutely no cost. The site I used is called Booklinker. You can find it HERE. It’s very easy to use. Just paste the URL for your book from any country’s Amazon site in the field as shown:

Sometimes, despite the best planning and execution, stuff doesn’t go right. As an indie author, you should always keep this in mind. It’s especially true when doing book events. In March, I attended a large local comic con. Deciding that wasn’t enough punishment (we minions are hard-headed!), I signed up for one in Louisville, the Derby City Comic Con, which is three hours from my home.

Comic Cons are a longshot for authors because most folks are there to see celebrities and get comics. Not many are looking for their next great novel. But it’s a good venue to meet and greet thousands of people and hopefully get your name out there. Despite the March con being financially painful, I thought I’d take lessons learned and see if I could shave $$s off this one. The price for the booth was $100 less than Lexington, which made me happy. I already had bookmarks, business cards, a banner, and a good stock of books. My illustrator invited me to crash on his sofa (he lives in Lexington and Louisville is roughly 1hr 20min away), so I’d be driving more, but not having to pay for a pricey hotel. And I’d stocked up on munchies so I didn’t have to buy expensive concession foods. I thought all was going to be good. Read more of this post

Offline book selling techniques

Before Any book selling can take place have systems in place that Will make sure you can sell offline.

ISBN – Make sure your book is set up and ready to be listed with offline stores by having an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). Needle? Go to:www.bowker.com

Distribution: With your handy dandy ISBN, you also want to make sure your book can be ordered seamlessly thru businesses, stores and libraries. Ingram and Baker&Taylor are the top paperback book distributors, but there are others as well. Check out this article on detailed book distribution to make site your book is ready for international Distribution. Click here

Website e-commerce – yes, you are offline but sometimes people can’t but from you offline or want to come later to check you out. Please make sue your website is ready for readers to buy when you are around. Your website should have a store available for all types of readers no matter what type of device they own.

Printed books – being offline means having product. Make sure you choose quality printing at affordable prices. Can’t buy in bulk, use print on demand options from companies such as Createspace.com andIngramSpark.com. Tip: Always have ten copies of your books on hand at all times. Never pay more than $4 a book.

Credit card processing – being offline also means handling customers who don’t carry their money around.SquareUp! Be able to take credit cards with ease, invoice out, keep up with inventory and create a store for offline customers to visit right from your phone or their phone. Paypal.com also offers portable credit card options as well.

Marketing Materials are a vital part of being offline. When offline customers can’t immediately buy books from you, your Marketing materials can be the Key too encouraged them to go online to buy your book when you are not around. Make sure your website and social media are on your printed materials. Example marketing materials are business cards, banners, pens, flashdrives and more mentioned below.

ARE YOU READY?

Now that you’re prepared to sell offline, here’s some suggestions.

1. Events (not booksignings) – gone are the days of just sitting in front of a crowd of people and reading your works. Now authors have to have events to get people in the door. Go to your out of the box ideas and create an event that will to come.

2. Create a Press Release – Sometimes you can sell a book offline without even being there. Getting your “news” in the hands of media such as radio, television and print is an awesome way for authors to “get the word out” or sell a book without having to be present offline.

Extras:

Write related current news or crisis happenings locally and nationally

Write a how to article and submit to media

Don’t forget to submit to local talk shows on local cable stations and podcast shows.

3. Distribute flyers – using resources like canva.com orfiverr.com, authors have the power to create awesome flyers/postcards without breaking the bank. See marketing material above on other places to get promotional material to pass out.

Extras:

Make a goal in passing out your material. Take twenty flyers/postcards everyday and share out. Didn’t finish passing them out by the end of the day, then you have to work extra hard the next day until they are all gone.

Don’t forget contact info, social media links and websites on your flyers, or it’ll all be in vain. (Trust me this has been forgotten before).

NO 8.5×11.5 flyers, please. They are too big and too bulky to be going around with them. Do half that size on quality stock paper with color.

You can also pass out free brochures and booklets (6 to 12 pages) as well.

Buy cardstock from office supply stores and print your own on your printer.

4. Volunteer with local organizations that relates to your niche. You would be amazed at the strong connections and support to your literary endeavors that you can make when you volunteer somewhere and they know you have books.

Extras:

You can send press releases and articles to these to include in their monthly zine to their members.

Sell books at the monthly meetings at the back of the room.

Have a way to capture addresses when you meet people. (Paper sign up or as suggested by author, KLBelvins using an iPad or Tablet, electronic sign up)

Take business/book cards with you everywhere.

Send a press release announcing every book signing and event

To find niche related Associations and Organizations, go to your local library and get the resource called Encyclopedia of Associations, because it’s really expensive to buy your own copy.

5. Book Festivals and Fairs

True, I said don’t have a book signing where you just read your work, but working with other authors, organizations and businesses where literary pavilions draw readers carrying cash work wonders in terms of networking, selling product and meeting other authors. Now I’m not going to guarantee you’ll sell loads of books, but the networking has always been wonderful and led to more book selling opportunities.

Now I know this may sound very wacky, but it works. Taking a QR code and post it on a business card, with your book cover on the front. The QR code can lead to an actual book where the customer enters a discount code and bamm! They have the book. You could easily sell these cards for $1.00 to $3.00 with no expense to you.

Collaborations with other authors – most of the suggestions above can be worked on with other authors to save on cost, headache and time. Find other authors in your community, network and see about partnerships you can do. Even sharing a table at a book festival can do wonders for your pocketbooks and your shyness.